Are Your Files Safe from Snooping?

Each year, companies spend millions in cyber security threat protection and response. A recent Ponemon study shows that cyber crime increased by 19% in 2015. The average annual loss for companies is almost $8 million, and threats continue to increase every day. The biggest threat to corporations is their employees, which means more effort should be placed in insider network monitoring rather than more effort on external threats.

Audit Trails

Audit trails are necessary for several regulatory standards. PCI, SOX and HIPAA are three examples. You need these audit trails to understand what type of movement and changes occurred within your data. They help you determine when a file was changed and who changed it. If massive changes happen to your files, these audit trails help you understand if it was human error or even a bug in your internal software.

Monitoring User Activity

Users with the right access privileges can easily steal data without much notice from the employer. However, suspicious activity on files can still trigger alerts with the right monitoring and notification software. This is an important part of user monitoring and file activity. Without any type of monitoring, an insider can have unfettered access to any files and use them for days.

It’s estimated that it takes an average of 3 months for an organization to notice malicious activity. In this amount of time, the employee can send data to a competitor and cause monetary and brand reputation damage

Instant, Real-Time Alerts

It costs companies an average of 30,524 man hours to contain malware when no monitoring efforts are put in place. Most malware enters the organization through employees either from files brought from home or through phishing emails. Even third party vendors can be a threat. The infamous Target attack that cost the company millions in lawsuits was from a breach through their HVAC vendor.

The time it takes to find suspicious files and user activity is one of the main problems organizations face when battling malware. When malware is allowed to sit on a network for too long, it spreads across the organization. Security administrators need instant, real-time alerts from monitoring systems that are able to correctly detect these threats and stop them from spreading.

Create a Central Security Hub

Security should be centralized with the ability to give the administrator an overall view of files and activity across the network. NTP Software File Auditor can create a central monitoring, logging, auditing and alerts hub for your business. It can also help you track user privileges and how they are used on the network.

With NTP Software File Auditor, you can have a cross-platform monitoring system that helps you review each file and add an extra layer of security across your storage facility. The better prepared you are with your files, the better security you’ll have around your sensitive data. Find out more here.